Systems and methods for remotely monitoring a multifunctional device in order to collect information from the device, such as billing information and ongoing failure information are known in the art. For example, a basic system is a series of indicators arranged remotely as a “scoreboard” to show the status of each multifunctional device in a limited fashion. This approach is only able to indicate gross failures and is not a practical monitoring system for a large number of multifunctional devices distributed over a large area or on multiple floors of a building.
A technique for remotely monitoring a number of multifunctional devices is the Xerox Remote Interactive Communications (RIC) system which interfaces with several different Xerox copiers and relays status information over telephone lines to a central service office. The RIC adapter consists of a dedicated microprocessor controller that plugs into a special data port on the multifunctional device and an auto-dial modem for direct hookup to a telephone line. This approach relies on a dedicated telephone line for each multifunctional device. With the plethora of devices existing in many different geographical locations, setting up and managing the devices is complicated and expensive as each device needs to have phone service established with a specific telephone company, a telephone technician dispatched to cable and install a phone jack and the expense of a full dedicated business phone line must be contracted. These and other various systems and methods for remotely monitoring multifunctional devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,037 entitled “Apparatus for Monitoring a Group of Copying Machines,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,319 entitled “System for Recording and Remotely Accessing Operating Data in a Reproduction Machine,” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,582 entitled “Photocopy Monitoring System,” all of which are incorporated by reference in their entireties for the teachings therein.
Thus, there is a need in the art for systems and methods for remotely monitoring a large number of multifunctional devices based on a wireless device that does not require special site preparation, does not require a dedicated telephone line and minimizes overall communications costs. In addition, there is a need to be able to track multifunctional devices to their physical location, which may change as the user's needs for multifunction devices change, in order to provide service to the devices and assure the proper billings are processed.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,496,237 and 5,305,055 are examples of “Remote Interactive Communication” with a large copier through a commercial phone line. U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,199 teaches how remote communication, such as through a network, can be used to initiate the ordering of supplies for a machine when a supply within a machine is approaching a spent state.
The present disclosure describes use of commercially-available text-messaging resources for communication of operating information. US Published Patent Application 2005/0254850 teaches the use of “text messaging” in an office-equipment context.